As the Chicago City Council prepares to approve his latest budget Wednesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel repeatedly has reminded voters that he didn't raise city property taxes during his first four years in office.

But that doesn't mean homeowners haven't had to pay. Under Emanuel, vehicle stickers cost more. Cable TV and phone taxes went up. And water and sewer fees increased significantly.

Taken separately, the tax and fee hikes are less noticeable than a property tax increase that would have jumped out at homeowners when the tax bill arrived. That's made it easier for the mayor to sell his spending plans to aldermen, who like Emanuel have to face voters Feb. 24.

Taken together, Emanuel's hikes mean the typical Chicago family will pay about $481 more to the city next year than it did in 2011. That's the equivalent of a typical Chicago homeowner paying 60 percent more in city property taxes, which are nearly $800 a year for city and library services on a $250,000 home.

"Taxes have gone up under this administration," said Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, who has voted for the mayor's budgets but thinks the city needs to be more frank with taxpayers. "A lot of it was necessary, but let's be honest with the people. They have gone up. The cost of being in Chicago has gone up since 2011."

Emanuel's budget chief said the administration has asked taxpayers for more money only as a last resort after making significant cuts, and argued the water and sewer fee hikes are going toward updating an antiquated system.

"The increases in revenue have been largely dedicated toward investments," said Budget Director Alexandra Holt, who noted the mayor has reduced the number of city employees, shifted to a more efficient garbage collection system and started to phase out health insurance subsidies for retired city workers.

The extra $481 tab is based on the owner of a $250,000 home with one car and one SUV, three phone lines and a monthly cable bill of $80 who uses an average amount of water under metered service.

The bulk of the extra costs under Emanuel come from four successive increases in sewer and water fees set in motion during his first six months in office, which added $355 a year to the bills paid by an average water user. Also in 2011, aldermen signed off on a $10 increase in the vehicle sticker for a car and $15 for an SUV, with automatic inflation-based increases built in.

The city raised cable TV amusement taxes — which providers pass on to customers — by $19.20 this year and another $28.80 next year once the latest budget is approved. In September, Emanuel's emergency communications tax went into effect on landline and cellphones, costing $16.80 a year for each phone. That's $50.40 a year for a family with three phones.

The phone fee hikes will go toward the city's emergency services spending, but the move freed up enough money for Emanuel to avoid a property tax increase he first proposed to cover increased pension payments for city workers and laborers.

While the 911 fee increase allowed Emanuel to say on the campaign trail that he hasn't raised city property taxes during his first term, Chicago homeowners have not escaped property tax increases under the mayor. Chicago Public Schools, which Emanuel controls, has increased property taxes the maximum amount allowed without voter approval under state law each of the last four years.

For the owner of that $250,000 home, the increases have cost at least $150 more in CPS property taxes in 2015 than in 2011, according to CPS calculations.

The tax, fee and fine increases under Emanuel are not limited to water service, cable TV, phone lines and vehicle stickers.

If the average family has a leased car, say a Ford Taurus for $249 a month, it will pay about $30 more a year in lease taxes. If the family lives in a condo, it will get $50 a year less in so-called refuse rebates from the city than it did in 2011.

If someone in that family parks downtown, it will cost $2.60 extra each time he or she spends $30 at a garage during the week. If someone smokes, an extra 50 cents per pack in taxes is part of the cost.

And if one of them gets caught more than once by one of the city's new speed cameras near schools and parks, he or she faces a fine of up to $100.

Add it all up, and the additional city tax, fee and fine collections resulting from the increases in the mayor's four spending plans will easily pump more than $700 million annually into city coffers, according to a Tribune analysis reviewed by the Emanuel administration.

A good portion of that burden will be borne by visitors and tourists who rent hotel rooms, park downtown, buy cigarettes or speed near a school or park, as well as suburban residents whose water supply comes from Chicago. City businesses that buy water, lease office machinery and own vehicles, along with larger not-for-profit agencies now being billed for water service, also will pay more.

Holt, the mayor's budget chief, notes numerous cost-saving moves the mayor has made. He's lowered the number of people on the city payroll to reduce the costs of the city's No. 1 expense: salaries, wages and benefits. A month after he took office, the city had a total of 34,192 employees. At the end of September, it had 32,160.

The mayor also has taken the controversial step of phasing out health insurance subsidies for tens of thousands of retired employees, their spouses and children — which the city estimates will reduce its 2015 payments by about $52 million from the amount paid in 2013.

All told, the city budget under Emanuel is up $1 billion — from $6.3 billion to $7.3 billion — in four years. But only $149 million of the additional spending is in the city's main fund, which pays for much of the costs of basic city services like police, fire and garbage pickup.

"That's been about the mayor's approach of focusing on savings and efficiencies and looking for better ways to do things before we talk about revenues, and if we talk about revenues, that those revenues need to be primarily focused on additional investments that serve residents," Holt said.

While the budget aldermen are expected to overwhelmingly approve Wednesday has no city property tax hikes, that doesn't mean one won't surface after the city election next year. For starters, the city will have to find $50 million more a year in each of the next four years to cover increased payments to the city workers and laborers retirement funds.

And that's not even the worst of it when it comes to city pension costs. As it stands now, Emanuel and aldermen must come up with $550 million more for the police and fire pension funds by 2016. They typically would have come up with the money in the new budget, but Emanuel put off the politically toxic topic while he seeks relief from state lawmakers.

Even if Emanuel can negotiate a solution that police and firefighters unions, lawmakers and aldermen can live with, more money will be asked of taxpayers.

"I think it's fair to say that there will have to be additional revenue that goes into those pension funds," Holt said. "It's an historic problem that has been building for decades, and the reality is that you've got to pair reform with revenue, but you really can't have one without the other."